The present invention relates to a folding high chair adapted to take two or more use positions.
It is known that there are folding high chairs which not only offer the possiblitlity of being folded up but also allow the positioning of the corresponding seat to different predetermined heights.
To this end different types of high chairs have been provided. According to one of them the seat is slidably engaged with a supporting frame consisting of two pairs of front and rear legs respectively disposed in the form of an inverted V. More particularly the seat engages with the front legs by a pair of side members provided with guide elements engaging in turn into sliding grooves extending longitudinally along the front legs themselves.
The fastening of the seat at predetermined levels from the ground is determined by the presence on each side member of a pin which being urged by a spring is designed to be snap fitted into suitably arranged housings on the corresponding front leg. Said pins pass across the respective side members and end in control knobs; by manually acting upon the latter it is possible to disengage the pins from the corresponding housings and, as a result, lower or raise the seat relative to the supporting frame.
From the foregoing description it is apparent that in the high chairs of the above type the lowering and raising operations for the seat are rather uncomfortable as the user is obliged to act simultaneously, using both hands, on the two knobs in order to disengage the respective pins from the corresponding housings.
In addition and above all during this step the user by holding the only knobs must also support the seat so that it may not suddenly slide down along the front legs. It can be easily realized that such a situation is particularly uncomfortable and unsteady when said operations are carried out while a child is sitting on the seat.
Another type of two-position high chair comprises a base frame made up of suitably shaped tubular elements fastened to one another, one seat being engaged therewith by means of two pairs of rods. The seat-frame-rod assembly substantially forms a linkage parallelogram. As a result, the seat can take two different use positions at different levels from the ground carrying out displacements with respect to the base frame by the combined action of horizontal and vertical movements.
Advantageously one of the pairs of said rods consists of the end portions of a U-shaped control lever, the transverse portion of which is located at the back of the high chair and can be operated as a pedal in order to raise the seat. In this mode it is possible to raise said seat and to guide the descent thereof by merely exerting a foot pressure on said crosspiece even when a child is sitting thereon.
The above features make the high chair in question very comfortable in use, being impossible to find this characteristic in the other high chairs of known type.
However the assembling of the seat on the base frame by means of parallelogram-shaped rods gives the whole high chair a precarious stability during the displacement steps thereof. In fact it is clear that during such operations the seat is obliged to follow trajectories that cause important displacements of the center of gravity concerning the whole high chair. Such a situation can involve important dangers if the seat is moved while the child is sitting thereon.
It is also important to note that said high chair does not offer any protection in the event that during the raising and/or lowering step the user should accidentally lose the foot hold on the control lever. In this case the seat would be subjected to a sudden drop.